the humanities - CIBER

Trust in scholarly communications in text
the digital age: the
humanities
text
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Professor David Nicholas, CIBER Research
All change?
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• Always perceived as different (soft), but are differences
weakening as result of everyone using same digital platforms
(web, smartphone and social media) and being evaluated in
same ways?
• So are disciplinary differences a thing of the past? Will they
change or will they stamp their own unique footprint on
scholarly communications?
• Oldest kid arrives on the digital block with e-books and digital
objects now in hand. Last to make the transition to the digital
but what are they making of it?
• Going to examine humanities scholars behaviour through prism
of some recent research CIBER have conducted about
using/reading, citing and disseminating scholarly content in
digital age
Using and reading behaviour
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• Scholarly activity which is least prescribed for researchers
• It is here where they are more likely to innovate,
experiment and just do what they like – embrace the new
• If going to see anything change it is here that we shall see
it
• Identified 15 activities associated with determining what
to use, just showing what a complex activity it is
• Humanities the odd one out in regard to 12 of these
activities
Usage: activities undertaken in order to determine what to use/read
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In general the most highly rated activities:
•Checking that arguments and logic are sound
•Checking to see if research data credible
•Reading the full-text
Compared to other disciplines Humanities more likely to:
•Read the full-text
•Check means by which the source had been disseminated (e.g. journal, blog)
•Check the name of author, journal and publisher
•Take account of discovery platform (e.g. library catalogue)
Compared to than other disciplines less likely to:
•Go by the abstract
•Take into account usage data
Usage: trustworthiness of sources
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Given a range of statements (8) regarding the trustworthiness of
sources
Humanists, as other scholars, agree most with these statements:
•I am very likely to read an article recommended to me by a
colleague
•Peer-reviewed journals are the most trustworthy information
sources
Humanities scholars trust open access publishing and Wikipedia as
much as the other disciplines
However, more lukewarm regarding trust proxies, such as impact
factors and while peer review journals are trusted highly, not quite
as highly as in other disciplines
Citing
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• In terms of importance citing comes between usage and
publishing. A prescribed and important activity for scholars,
which comes with rules
• However, researchers read many articles and only cite a few of
them, so selection is required and trustworthiness a key part of
the process.
Citing
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.
Some interesting divergences between disciplines
• Humanities researchers more likely to:
• cite the seminal source in the field, whereas life scientists
prefer to cite the most recent source
• cite non-peer reviewed sources (e.g., personal
correspondence, newspaper articles, blogs, tweets)
• Humanities researchers less likely to use citations for ‘gaming’
purposes, such as citing: a) one’s own publications; b) reviewer
suggestions; c) journal to which submitted
Publishing and disseminating research
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• Activity where academic careers and reputations are made
and clearly trustworthiness is a big factor
• Researchers clearly want to publish in sources that are held to
be high status and hence trustworthy.
• Thus publishing focuses the academic mind on
trustworthiness issues and we can learn a lot about the
process.
Publishing and disseminating research: attributes looked for
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Asked to comment on attributes of 10 publishing outlets
Humanities scholars odd one out in 6 cases
Humanities scholars, like others, rated most highly outlets that are:
•Highly relevant to my field
•Peer reviewed
•Published by traditional scholarly publisher
Differed from scholars in other disciplines rating more highly:
•Traditional scholarly publishers
•Reputation of editorial board
And rating more lowly:
•Being highly cited
Fact that an outlet is open access in not seen to be very important
Traditional practices hold sway, but question mark over digital outlets thing
of the past
Publishing and disseminating research: influence of institutional policies
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Researchers most frequently pressed to publish:
• in international journals
• high impact factor journals
• traditional sources, such as journals and monographs
Few researchers, irrespective of discipline, pressed to use the social
media for publishing or dissemination purposes, but moderate
pressure to publish in open access journals
Humanities researchers more likely to agree:
• that they are influenced to publish in traditional sources and hardcopy ones than their colleagues from other disciplines
Conclusions
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Lots in common
But Humanities researches differ in that:
• Journals and metrics that service them not so important. While scientists largely
unquestioning about merits of metrics; social scientists slightly uneasy, but feel
there is little choice; whereas humanities scholars feel culturally uncomfortable
and alienated
• Humanities scholars, like early career researchers, more likely to use social
media, especially so to disseminate research to target audiences
• Biggest and most welcome change for humanities scholars over the past decade
is that closer ties with researchers, enabled by digital communication, makes it
easier to judge trustworthiness of content. They prefer the personal touch Back to question posed at beginning: are humanities researchers losing their
uniqueness because of common use of a platforms and search/discovery tools
(Google and Google Scholar) and growing institutional pressures?
Seems answer is in some respects yes, but not in all respects
The evidence base
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• Trust and authority in scholarly communications in the light
of the digital transition research project, 2013. 3650 plus
survey respondents (all countries) plus several hundred
(UK/USA) interviewees. Looked at using/reading, citing and
disseminating behavior.
• With supplementary data from Emerging reputation
mechanisms for scholars research project, 2014-2015. 250
plus EU survey respondents and nearly a 100 interviews.
Looked at the impact of social media, online communities
and the likes of ResearchGate and Academia.edu on
scholarly reputation
• See more at http://ciber-research.eu/